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Double injury boost for Southampton

Southampton will welcome James Ward-Prowse and Toby Alderweireld back into their squad for Saturday's Premier League clash with Burnley.

Published

11 December 2014

Midfielder Ward-Prowse has been out of action for almost three months after sustaining a fractured foot in a 1-0 win at Swansea City on September 20.

Centre-back Alderweireld sat out Monday's 2-1 defeat at home to Manchester United with a hamstring complaint.

However, both players are set to come in contention this weekend, although Morgan Schneiderlin is not expected back until Tuesday's League Cup quarter-final tie with Sheffield United and Jack Cork - who had two loan spells at Burnley - could be absent for several weeks.

"James Ward-Prowse is back training with the group, he's back after his injury," manager Ronald Koeman said.

"He needs more time but he will be in the squad for the two games, because we'll stay over there for the Saturday game at Burnley then on Tuesday against Sheffield United.

"He's one of the 22 players to travel with the team. Maybe he's on the bench, if not on then he will be on the bench Tuesday.

"Cork, he's out for more weeks. Morgan Schneiderlin will travel with the group and we have hopes he'll be back for Tuesday. Toby Alderweireld will be fit for Saturday."

Southampton head to Turf Moor on the back of three consecutive defeats to Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United - a run that has seen them slip out of the top four after an excellent start to the season.

And Koeman admits it has been an eye-opening last few weeks against the Premier League's top teams.

"We have to learn, because we lost all the three games against the big clubs and you have to learn from that if you want to make the next step, as a player, as a team, as a club, you have to learn about that," he added.

"It's not always about the way of playing because we played a good game against Arsenal and Manchester United but the result was negative.

"We created good chances last Monday but we scored only one time and the difference is we did some mistakes and that wasn't like us at the start of the season.

"You know against the big teams they don't need a lot of chances to scores. That was the big difference between Southampton, Arsenal and Manchester United.

"They are used to it, they have that experience and we don't. You have to get that experience. Maybe the next game against Burnley will be different."